More than 100 people crowded into the Carroll Township municipal building Monday night to protest the rumored disbanding of the police department.

They also made it clear that, while they don't want their local police department to be shuttered, they're not completely happy with how it's being run, either.

During more than an hour of public comment, residents exhorted the board to raise taxes if necessary in order to keep the police department going.

Officials said talk of the department disbanding was not true.

Residents also asked that Chief Sean Kapfhammer be held accountable.

Several residents shouted from the floor that Kapfhammer does not live in the township, even though his contract requires him to.
Board chairman Paul Walters said, "He rents an apartment in Dillsburg and he stays three nights a week."

"I stay in Kitty Hawk one week a year. Doesn't make me a resident of North Carolina," one resident retorted.

After the meeting, Kapfhammer said that he spends more nights per week away from his wife and family than he does with them. He acknowledged that his family does still live in Baltimore, but that he owns property in Franklin Township and that he had tried to sell his Baltimore home but had been unable to.

"This is a prime example of the tail wagging the dog," he said of the turnout for the meeting.

When he took over the job of chief in January 2011, he said, "no one had ever been disciplined.

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There were serious breaches of public safety," that threatened the welfare of the citizens.

One example he cited was that, before he started, it was standard procedure for police to respond to domestic violence situations and give the husband or boyfriend a harassment citation.

He has made that a must-arrest offense, he said.

"The officers are angry about on-going disciplinary action," he added.

He cited that as part of the reason for low morale, and used low morale as a reason that citations - and therefore department-generated revenue - was down year-on-year.

The department has nine full-time officers, three of whom are sergeants, and three part-time officers in addition to Kapfhammer.

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